Dictionary

detailman en · NOUN

Etymology

From detail + -man.

Meanings

1. A sales representative for a pharmaceutical company.
   • About one hundred thousand of them in the United States visit doctors' offices with drug samples, dinner invitations, tickets to ball games, and various other gifts. Drug companies spend about $5 billion annually on detailmen and their gifts. 2011, Jessica Leavitt, Fred Leavitt, Improving Medical Outcomes:
   • It is remarkable that any physician has time to see detailmen (pharmaceutical company sales representatives). 1989, P. Reed Maurer, Competing in Japan, page 34:
   • Nearly every pharmaceutical house has its own brands, sold in tablets, solutions or brightly-colored capsules, on which its “detail men” keep doctors informed. Probably the most popular successors to Veronal are Seconal (“red birds” to the bootleg trade) and Nembutal (“yellow jackets”). 1952 October 13, Richard L. Williams, “‘To sleep: perchance…’”, in Life, volume 33, number 15, page 110:

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